


Universal Safety Net (The 10 Seconds Remix)

by LizBee



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Community: remix_redux, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-15
Updated: 2007-04-15
Packaged: 2017-10-03 22:31:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizBee/pseuds/LizBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose promised ten seconds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Universal Safety Net (The 10 Seconds Remix)

**Author's Note:**

> A remix of "[Universal Safety Net](http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=2344)" by WarInBabylon, for the 2007 Remix Redux challenge.

"You're forgetting," says Rose. "It's a time machine. I could go traveling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe and by the time I get back, yeah - ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds."

 

*

 

_Ten_

 

"Well?"

Mickey shrugs.

"Ten seconds. Ten minutes. I could stay out there ten hours, but it wouldn't make a difference."

Jackie breathes slowly, until the tears have stopped pricking at her eyes. She shifts her weight, and something crunches underfoot. A flier, rumpled and torn, but still legible.

_Have you seen Rose Tyler?_

 

*

 

_Nine_

 

"She wants what's best," says Rose.

The Doctor doesn't answer. Maybe he didn't hear. Maybe he didn't want to hear.

"Just think," she says, trying to laugh, "a few days ago, Mum's biggest worry was that I'd ... I dunno. Get hit by a bus. Get pregnant. Stay out all night. Now she's thinking I'll get ... trapped on the moon or something."

"A year," says the Doctor. "It was a year ago."

"Right," says Rose. "I forgot."

 

*

 

_Eight_

 

Mickey goes home early. Jackie wanted him to stay for dinner, but he can't stand another minute in that flat, with all the memories. His own place is still a mess. And it stinks. He goes out and has a burger, a couple of drinks with his mates, a couple of games of pool and a couple more drinks.

But still, it isn't even eleven when he comes back. Can't stay out all night like he used to. Maybe he's getting old. Or growing up, at least.

He doesn't go in right away. He lingers outside, staring at the empty space where the TARDIS had stood.

He counts to ten, and nothing happens.

Then, at last, he goes inside.

 

*

 

_Seven_

 

"Could you go back?" Rose asks, watching the Doctor throw levers and hit switches. The TARDIS is pulsing around them, the magic is starting to work, and all of time is opening up.

"Go back where?" He hits a button. "Not to your mum's, I hope. Seen enough of her for a while."

"I meant ... to the year we missed. Couldn't you just take me back to the day after I left? So none of this even happened?"

"Can't." He looks up. His eyes are so dark and old and serious. "Laws of time. Can't change the past."

"But ... that was 2006, that's the future."

The Doctor shakes his head. "It's the present, now. And the past." He grinned. "All that at once. You don't understand a bit, do you, Rose?"

She shakes her head.

"Then just trust me. This is your path, now."

 

*

 

_Six_

 

"I just want her to be safe. Please, I just want her to be safe."

Jackie has no time for God, provided that he minds His business and stays out of hers. But for Rose, she is willing to make an exception.

"Please. I just want her to be safe."

 

*

 

_Five_

 

"More people die crossing the road, than in plane crashes."

"You humans. You die so easily, you lot."

"Not like you, then?"

Rose smiles, but he is distracted and doesn't see it. He's staring blankly at a bit of equipment, and she could kick herself; his whole planet is dead.

"My dad died," she says. "Crossing the street."

"See? Point demonstrated."

"I guess that's why she's protective. Mum, I mean."

The Doctor puts his tools down and looks at her.

"If you want to go home," he says gently, "I won't hold it against you."

Rose wants to give him a wide grin, but she can't seem to manage it.

"Weren't you paying attention?" she says. "You're stuck with me. Anyway, I'm no better off at home than here."

"Better here, I'd say."

This time, she manages to smile.

 

*

 

_Four_

 

"Mum," Rose had said, "if you saw it out there, you'd never come home."

And that makes her so _angry_, because who is Rose to tell her what she would and wouldn't do? Oh, her daughter, her beloved only daughter, but Jackie doesn't even need to leave the Powell Estate to see how terrible the world can be, and she has no reason to believe any other planet would be better.

Sometimes, at night, the words "never come home" echo through her mind, and she sits up and watches late night telly and eats chocolate until she's numb again.

 

*

 

_Three_

 

So they're hurling themselves through time and space, and Rose has the sudden feeling that she's everywhere and nowhere and then and now and anywhen, and she can't put it into words, but she thinks this is how the Doctor feels all the time.

He catches her eye and grins, and she laughs for the joy of it. Ten millions miles of fire, and they'll ride the shockwave out and see where they end up. See history unfold. See the universe take shape. See time and space and all the joy and pain in this alien man's eyes. _Did I mention it travels in time?_

It's not safe, not in the least, but Rose wouldn't have it any other way.

 

*

 

_Two_

 

It's a month before Mickey's flat is cleared up, and longer before it stops smelling of vinegar.

"Oooh, this is nice," says Trish Delaney, the first time she comes around. She's poking through the cupboards and going through the fridge. Nearly empty, all of them. "Need a bit of looking after, you do," she tells him, because food's important to Trish. She cooks big meals for the people she loves. She has lovely wide hips and curly hair, and she's nothing at all like---

"What happened to Rose, then?" she asks suddenly.

"She went travelling."

"And she's not ... I mean, you're not---"

"She won't be back," Mickey says. "Not for ages."

But he glances out the window and counts to ten before he looks at her again.

 

*

 

_One_

 

Rose puts her family out of her mind, and turns to the Doctor and waits for the adventure to start again.

 

.  
_end_


End file.
